Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Sega, Idea Factory and Compile Heart and whomever else worked on it.
Chapter 29
As everyone settled into the living room of the Basilicom with Neptune laying on the end of the sofa with Nepgear and Compa on the sofa as well while Blanc, Rom, Ram and Uni took the other sofa while Noire, Vert and IF sat on rather comfortable chairs. "So if Histoire and the guild doesn't know where the bad guys are at, why are we here?" Ram asked, looking at her sisters in confusion before looking at the others in the room and then pointing at Pudding. "And what's what?! A penguin with peg legs and a sack on its front?"
"Pudding is a Prinny." Neptune explained for Ram as she picked up Pudding and hugged him. "He's a good worker and I love him to death." She nuzzled his face as his cheeks turned red before she put him down. "Okay, Pudding, go get everyone some drinks and snacks!"
"Yes, Master Neptune!" Pudding saluted and turned to waddle to the kitchen.
Neptune giggled at the looks she was getting. "What? He's a perfectly good slave. He doesn't complain about my requests and I even pay him good!"
"...Slave?" More than one person asked in confusion.
"Ah!" Neptune's eyes went white and blank. "Sorry, forgot you don't know what a Prinny is. See, they were people who did bad things when they were alive and instead of reincarnating into their next life, they have to live as a Prinny for a long time and their whole purpose is to be a slave."
"...But..." Nepgear tried to protest and Neptune shook her head.
"Nope! It's the way the multiverse works." Neptune nodded her head. "See, Pudding did a lot of bad things when he was a human and is now a Prinny and is working to pay his debt off."
"...Suddenly it doesn't seem so bad." Blanc said as she looked at Pudding who was walking in with a tray on his head. "...So it's okay to treat this one badly?"
Neptune grimaced and shook her head. "Nah, I like Pudding. The worst thing he does is walk in me when I'm naked." Everyone stared at her and she shrugged. "What? I got nothing to hide."
"...Aren't you the least bit embarrassed?" Noire asked as she blushed at the thought of someone walking in on her naked. 'Then again, K-Sha did that, but we're both girls, so it's okay, right?'
Neptune shrugged. After being alive for so many years, she had no problem if people saw her naked. "I mean, I'm not going to take a bath in my clothes." She stuck her tongue out as Noire twitched and nearly fell off the couch. "So, what happened in your nations while we were split up?"
"Do I have a brother-in-law?" Nepgear was the first one to ask, causing Vert to sigh and hang her head. "I mean..." She poked her fingers together and blushed. "I saw that there were two CPUs who were calling you mother and I started thinking..." Her eyes went white and blank. "Neptune has kids, so she has a husband and that means she got married and did lewd things and AHHH!"
Neptune gave Nepgear a flat look and looked at Vert. "...I admit, my memory's a bit fuzzy, but I don't recall Nep Jr. being like this..."
"She's freaking out about the thought of being an aunt." Vert said as Nepgear calmed down and blushed more. "Nepgear, dear, we talked about this."
Nepgear panted and blushed nodding. "I'm sorry, I..."
Neptune sighed and shook her head. "Yes, I have kids. Yes, Rainbow Heart and Gray Heart are my biological children..." She trailed off and a distant look came to her eyes, one that showed a lot of pain and conflicting emotions that the other CPUs couldn't really understand. "And yes, I have a husband."
"YOU DO?!" Everyone but Compa and IF yelled in shock and Neptune nodded.
"Bu, bu, but... AHHHH!" Nepgear screamed in surprise. "That means..."
"Nothing." Neptune said with a sharp voice. "It means nothing." She stood up and walked off. "I need to be alone."
Compa gave Neptune a worried look and IF sighed. "Alright, listen up." IF spoke while the others were still stunned in surprise. "Nep's husband wasn't someone she chose, apparently Nep and the CPUs of the other world were brainwashed and ended up married to some Mole People or something as slave wives."
"...And suddenly I feel sick to my stomach." Blanc said and shuddered at the thought of being brainwashed and forced to do things that she wouldn't normally do.
(-)
On top of the roof to the Basilicom, Neptune stood there, her hands balled into fists. "...Neppit! Why do I get like this so..."
"Because you know that telling anyone the truth would be a bad thing." A voice spoke up and Neptune didn't bother turning around, she knew the person wasn't really there. "You know that I'm always here, Neptune." The voice was deeper than Neptune's voice, soft, yet powerful and cold. "Did you really want to come back home? Or was it out of a sense of obligation? Or perhaps it's just because that was your goal for so long?"
Neptune didn't answer the voice as she looked out at Planeptune. "Go away."
"Fine, but you'll have to tell them the truth sooner or later. I wonder how Ouya and Stadia will react when they find out the truth."
The presence disappeared and Neptune closed her eyes as she shifted into HDD. "I need to vent." She said and pulled out a gem before tossing it to the side where shadows pooled around it and spun until it became a shadow copy of Purple Heart.
The shadow said nothing as it pulled out a sword and launched itself at Purple Heart, who stabbed at the shadow, which parried the attack before creating a second sword to try and stab Purple Heart in the face. Leaning her body to the side, she avoided the stab, but not the kick to the stomach that followed. Even though she was doubled over, Purple Heart created several swords out of thin air to land around her to force the shadow to get away from her and give her time to recover from that attack. As soon as she did, Purple Heart grabbed one of the swords that was stuck in the ground, spun around to build up momentum and threw it at the shadow Purple Heart before she grabbed a second sword that was stuck in the ground and threw it over-hand at the shadow as well. She grabbed a third sword and rushed at her shadow doppelganger, who parried the two thrown swords as well as Purple Heart's attempted stabbing with the third sword.
Purple Heart smirked and the shadow doppelganger's eyes widened in surprise as she jerked forward slightly. The shadow Purple Heart took a staggered step backwards as Purple Heart's katana was poking out from between her breasts from behind. "Thanks." She nodded as the shadow disappeared and her katana dropped to the ground, clattering. "I'm still not as good at that trick as you were, Frozen Queen of the North."
"Master Neptune," Pudding spoke up, causing Purple Heart to turn to see the Prinny with Nepgear looking at her in worry, "everyone was worried about you."
"I'm fine now." Purple Heart told him. "Nepgear, please, I'm sorry, I just... Have some bad memories is all."
Nepgear nodded and walked over to Purple Heart and hugged her. "IF and Compa told us. That you were forced to..." She trailed off as she buried her face into Purple Heart's breasts.
Purple Heart smiled and hugged Nepgear back, closing her eyes and enjoying the comforting sensations. "It was a long time ago, Nepgear. I just don't like thinking about it." Nepgear looked up at her with her eyes shimmering with tears threatening to fall. "In truth, it wasn't all that bad." Nepgear looked at her in confusion as she let go of the hug and Purple Heart walked over to the edge of the roof to lean against the railing and look out at the city. "Over time, I think that my husband came to love me, though I can't say for certain. And even if it was all fake, I was happy being with him at the time."
"...Did you have children with him?" Nepgear asked.
"...Would it change your opinion of me if I told you that I gave birth to several of his children?" Purple Heart asked, her voice betraying no emotion.
"No." Nepgear shook her head. "If you had children or not, it doesn't change who you are." She walked over and hugged Purple Heart from behind, wrapping her arms around Purple Heart's midsection, resting her head on Purple Heart's shoulder. "You're my big sister. No matter what happened to you, you're still my big sister."
"Thank you." Purple Heart said as she put her right hand on Nepgear's hands. She shifted back into her human form as Nepgear let go of the hug. "But, yeah..." Neptune turned and gave Nepgear an uneasy smile. "I don't like thinking about that time, things are... A bit complicated."
Nepgear nodded, understanding why Neptune didn't want to talk about it. "Um... Neptune, the others..."
"Are right here." Noire said as she, Vert and Blanc walked onto the roof. "We heard everything."
Neptune waved at them. "Well, yeah... I had a lot of kids over the years, you know... I don't like talking about everything though."
"I understand." Vert said and nodded. "If you need to talk, I'll listen." She looked at Blanc and Noire. "No, correction, we'll all listen."
"It's fine." Neptune insisted. "It was a long time ago and I'm mostly over it, I just don't like to think about it, that's all." The others nodded. "So..." She gave them a tired smile. "What else happened in your nations?"
"...Neptune," Blanc spoke up softly. "Does the name Peashy mean anything to you?" Seeing Neptune's face go pale with her pupils shrinking, she nodded. "I see... Because I met a CPU that looked like a little girl named Peashy who was looking for you."
"...P-Ko's here too?" Neptune asked as she staggered back. "She should be back in the other world. ...Don't tell me that Plutie's here too."
"Plutie?" Noire asked Neptune, curiously. "Who's that?"
"A girl about my height with messy purple hair in a loose braided ponytail and pajamas..." Neptune trailed off as Noire's face had a look of recognition on her face. "...Aaaaand Plutie's here too, greaaaat!" She hung her head and sighed. "Before you ask, Plutie's the CPU of Planeptune in the other world. She was the founder of that world's Planeptune. P-Ko's a little girl that we adopted together and became a CPU later."
A screen popped up and Histoire's face appeared in front of everyone. "Oh good, you're all together."
"Well, Rom, Ram and Uni are inside." Nepgear pointed out, smiling nervously at the look Histoire gave her. "Sorry, sorry."
"I swear, sometimes I worry you're turning into Neptune some days." Histoire shook her head. "But enough of that, we just found where AffimaX's base is located."
"Well good." Noire smirked. "Let's get there, beat the crap out of them and return the world to the way it used to be."
"Careful," Neptune pointed out, "if they have the power to change the world, they won't be easy to beat." The others jerked in surprise and Neptune laughed, rubbing the back of her head. "Well, you know, between Ancient CPUs, aliens, Mole People and Dinosaur cultists, I've learned things aren't always what they seem."
"So, what's the plan then?" Blanc asked Neptune, who puffed her chest out as she came up with a brilliant plan.
"We go there and smash things." Neptune cheerfully replied, laughing as everyone, including Histoire AND the screen that was showing Histoire, face-faulted. She quickly and quietly pulled out a small camera and snapped pictures of everyone's butts in the air and their underwear being flashed. 'I'll save that for later.' She put the camera away as everyone recovered and gave her an annoyed look. "Listen, we know it's likely a trap and they're likely prepared, but if we just stand around and do nothing, it'll only get worse. So if we go in, smash things, we force them to use their trap and hope it's not as bad as things could get."
"...That's what we do all the time anyway," Noire pointed out, "are you SURE that you've learned anything in regards to this since you were away?"
"Well," Neptune just smiled at her, "I know that the power to warp reality on a scale like this is pretty rare. So it's probably a machine that they have that's allowing them to do stuff, so we just need to find it and smash it."
"Now THAT sounds like a plan." Blanc grinned and looked at the screen where Histoire was nodding. "Where are they, Histoire?"
"In the mountains on the North-Western edge of Planeptune." Histoire said as a map appeared a flashing dot appeared on the screen. "There's a battleship that's hovering just over the mountains over there."
"Well," Vert had a dark smile on her face, "shall we deal with these people? I'd love to have things get back to normal again."
"YEAH!" The others cheered as they threw their hands into the air and gathered up IF, Compa and the CPU Candidates before taking off for the location indicated.
Pudding watched them go off and sighed. "Be careful, Master Neptune. Master Valvatorez always said you're too nice to me, so I don't want you to get brainwashed again, dood."
Well, that was a chapter, huh?
So I'm going to write an omake about a certain wiki vandal scene from VII now.
Nepgear was looking embarrassed as Histoire chastised her over what she had done to the information that was public. "I'm sorry, I'll... Huh?" She blinked as she realized that there was yet another new edit to the page. "What's this?"
"Goodness me, what now?" Histoire asked tiredly as she floated over to read what Nepgear was reading. "...What?"
(-)
Steamax stared at the new information on the screen. "What is this? "Information about Pudding Planet"? Wait, there's an actualplanet of pudding?!" That was something he had no idea when he had changed the wiki to make it seem like Neptune was a monster from Pudding Planet. "...Of course, this could be a big lie, so what does it say?" He tilted his head in surprise. "The name Pudding Planet is not because, as one might think, the planet is made out of pudding, but rather because it rains pudding once a month and the rivers, lakes and oceans are made up of the stuff."
All Steamax could do was stare stupidly at it.
(-)
"The native people of Pudding Planet are very friendly," Nepgear continued to read, "but do not try to eat them. They are not edible despite looking like candy people of various flavors. If one who is not from the planet tries to eat them, they are pushed down and a giant pudding enema is shoved into them." Her eyes went blank and white. "What the goodness?!"
Histoire continued to read out loud "As for the pudding that rains and makes up the lakes, rivers and oceans, while it is very tasty, it is not advisable for anyone not native to the planet to drink any, as their digestive tract will not be able to handle it and it can lead to an extremely serious case of diarrhea." She grimaced at the thought of that happening to Neptune. "...Oh dear. I wonder if the person who wrote this has personal experience or not."
(-)
"Pudding Monsters are actually born from the bodies of liquid pudding and will attempt to eat the natives." Steamax continued, gawking at the details in the new entry. "It is not advisable to try and eat these monsters, despite them being made out of pudding, unless one has over 100 kilos of whipped cream with them as Pudding Monsters are quite delicious with whipped cream." Steamax face-faulted at the thought of someone carrying that much whipped cream with them to eat pudding monsters. "...HOW DOES THIS PERSON KNOW ALL OF THIS?!"
(-)
Popping her head into the room, Neptune smiled as she saw Histoire and Nepgear. "Oh, hey Nepgear, Histy. Man, someone went and said I was pudding monster and put that into the wiki, huh? Well, that's fine, if they want to claim I'm a pudding monster, I might as well educate them on Pudding Planet." She nodded while both Histoire and Nepgear gave her blank, white eyed stares.
"Wait... YOU made the edits?!" Nepgear gawked as Neptune nodded. "HUH?!"
"Uh huh..." Neptune grimaced. "I was hungry when I first got there too and they gave me such an enema I thought my stomach was going to pop..." She rubbed her stomach and grimaced at the memory. "I was stupid. And yes, Pudding Monsters do taste good with whipped cream... But don't drink the pudding directly. I did that and I thought my insides were going to escape out my butt for a month straight. I couldn't even leave the toilet for a week." Seeing as neither Histoire nor Nepgear had a comeback to that, Neptune smiled and waved at them. "Well, have fun." She ducked out, leaving Histoire and Nepgear to look at each other in horror.
"...Histoire..." Nepgear began. "What else has Onee-chan done that we don't know about?"
Histoire could only shake her head and hoped that this was just a prank by Neptune.
Well, have fun with that.
